Why do PvP for nothing? Why not get paid for blowing away your opponents? That’s the philosophy of an upcoming online game called “Kwari“.

Of course, that’s a cute spelling of “quarry”, but it’s a good title nonetheless. And certainly more discreet than, say, “Kill For Cash”. Heh.

The basic idea is that players are matched by skill and then go at it. They lose money when they’re hit and make money when they hit opponents. According to the press release, all the money goes to the players.

I suppose the Kwari folks will be doing some heavy ads, although who will take time to read them when they’re trying to up their accounts is another matter.

They are also going to need a very tight system. If anything is an incentive for hacking, this is definitely it, as real cash is involved. I don’t like to think about what would happen if cheating starts in there.

Will this succeed? That’s hard to say. After all, there are professional cyberplayers right now who go head-to-head for cash prizes. Of course, that takes place in carefully-controlled circumstances.

This is different, and may have an appeal since you don’t need to be a “professional” to take part. And there’s also the matter of how much one can earn (or lose) by playing.

Anyway, check out the press release on GameDaily and see what you think.

It’s like playing “Assassin” in the old days for cash prizes. Sounds way cool to me. So long as the prize distribution is handled carefully… and exploits addressed with RUTHLESS attention… it would be a very interesting little sporting event.

I read the article. It’s internet gambling with FPS gameplay substituting for poker. I guess they’re trying to do an end run around the regulators and see if they can make a bundle before it suffers the same fate as international poker.

Boxing is equally as skill-based yet it’s still gambling if wagers are made on the outcome. If the fighters could bet on themselves, as they can in Kwari, it would be virtually (heh) the same thing. The amount of real money a player stands to lose is his wager.

I’m not predicting the government(s) will see it this way (who can guess what they’ll do? :P). This is just my impression.

Actually, Scorpia and Dellaster, all the government will do is let the IRS deal with these gamers and make sure they pay their income taxes OR go to prison for nonpayment of income taxes.

Scorpia, did you hear that the first winner of Survivor did go to prison for nonpayment of his income taxes? He won (I believe) a cool mil and refused to give Uncle Sam his due. Now this guy is playing a new game of Survivor in prison.

Presto, is that right? He didn’t pay the taxes? How foolish of him to think he could get away with that.

And yes, not even counting Kwari, anyone who makes money in an online game (Second Life, for instance) is required to pay taxes on it, because it’s income. They don’t need any new laws for that, because income is still income.

Ag, I am not a tax expert; that’s something an accountant or tax lawyer would have to struggle with. However, just going by what little I know, you can’t deduct expenses for a hobby, even if it makes you money. You can only deduct expenses for a job. Draw your own conclusions from that. Better yet, ask a tax professional ;)